Pistachio Gulkand Barfi

Barfi is an Indian sweet in form of a fudge that has a soft melt in mouth consistency. There are many variations of it that are possible, however the original barfi recipe is made of just milk and sugar. This recipe uses a barfi base made with pistachios. This Pistachio Gulkand Barfi recipe uses a gulkand filling enhanced with nuts, fennel seeds and coconut. Each piece is like a sandwich of two pistachio base barfi layers with enhanced gulkand filling in between.

Gulkand (Gul-kand) is a rose (gul) petal preserve (kand), most commonly used as core ingredient in Meetha (sweet) Paan (beetle leaf). Paan or beetle leaf folded with Gulkand and other ingredients inside is used as a mouth freshener after a meal in northern India. This Meetha Paan is also good for digestion.

My original attempt was to replicate my favourite childhood pista paan flavors in form of a dessert. However, as I was attempting to do that, quickly realized that the paan and the pista flavors are not going together because both have very strong flavors. Two strong flavors were fighting each other. Interestingly, I ended up with this new recipe for Pistachio Gulkand Barfi.

A quick internet search will make you aware of the cooling properties of Gulkand, which provides relief from many body heat related ailments such as acidity, boils and ulcers. Is also aids in improving digestion and increasing appetite. It is one of the few ayurvedic medicines that actually taste really yummy! I have further enhanced it by adding other nuts and seeds, which help in reducing the sweetness of the gulkand as well.

Main ingredient for the Barfi base used in this recipe is pistachios, which are low in calories but high yield in proteins. Pistachios are rich in anti-oxidants and good for heart health. Pistachios are very nutty and strong flavored. So, if you feel that flavor of pistachio’s is too strong for you, you can tone it down by replacing half of it with almond or cashew flour. Typically, any nut flour to sugar ratio in barfi is 2:1 by weight, but here since we have used a sweet gulkand filling between the two layers, I have reduced the quantity of sugar to 3:1 ratio.

This recipe only takes 15 minutes to make. So the whole process is very quick, so make sure you have your full focus on it.

NOTE: You can either use pistachio powder available in the market or you can also easily make pistachio powder at home using the steps provided below. I already had pistachio powder in my pantry, so I used that.

Method:

To make pistachio powder:

First roast the pistachio on very slow heat for 15 minutes. Roasting should not change the color of the pistachio, but just heat them up. Roasting makes it easier to make powder, without releasing the oil while grinding.

Now let them cool down before crushing them into powder form.

Once cool, you can use your spice grinder to grind them. Just make sure not to overload the grinder. Do in small batches. Pulse it. Do not run the grinder for long times.

Lastly sieve the powder to remove any uncrushed big pieces of pistachio. You may grind these again.

In this whole process heat should be medium low. Take a non-stick pan and heat it up.

Add sugar and water to make a single string sugar syrup.

When all the sugar is dissolved in water, add 2 tbsp of milk in the syrup to remove all the gunk from the syrup. The milk will form the scum on top of the syrup, that you could remove with help of a small strainer.

To check if the sugar syrup is ready put a small drop on your four finger and thumb and pull the finger apart to check if the string forms between your fingers.

Don’t burn yourself as syrup will be hot. You need to act really fast because the consistency of syrup will change really fast.

When the syrup is ready, first add cardamom powder and then pistachio powder in it. Quickly mix together in the syrup. If the whole thing is not coming together, you might need to add a little bit of milk to help in getting everything together.

Keep stirring. As the mixture starts leaving the pan add 1 tsp of ghee and mix to glaze the mixture.

Remove the mixture from the pan and put it on the parchment sheet.

Keep kneading the dough with spatula to bring in together as a dough.

Next step is to make a flatten it out, which can be done in two ways. You can simply use the spatula to flatten it or you can either roll it with a rolling pin. If you decide to use the rolling pin, first put the parchment paper on the top to make sure that mixture does no stick to the rolling pin.

You will need two flat spreads to make a sandwich with gulkand in between them. So you can either make two flats or divide a single flat in two parts.

Spread the gulkand over one of the flattened barfi dough and the put the other flattened barfi layer on the top to make a sandwich. Use the parchment paper to help you lift the other layer and flip it over the spread.

Put another parchment sheet on the top and roll it with a rolling pin lightly to bond the three layers together.

Now, remove the parchment sheet and cut it into your desired shape. Note, before making a final cut, make some guiding grid, to make sure all your pieces look similar in size and shape.

For decoration you can

either put silver foil on the top to bring out the rich look of the barfi,

This Pistachio Gulkand Barfi recipe uses a gulkand filling enhanced with nuts, fennel seeds and coconut. Each piece is like a sandwich of two pistachio base layers with enhanced gulkand filling in between.

First roast the pistachio on very slow heat for 15 minutes. Roasting should not change the color of the pistachio, but just heat them up. Roasting makes it easier to make powder, without releasing the oil while grinding.

Now let them cool down before crushing them into powder form.

Once cool, you can use your spice grinder to grind them. Just make sure not to overload the grinder. Do in small batches. Pulse it. Do not run the grinder for long times.

Lastly sieve the powder to remove any uncrushed ot big pieces of pistachio. You may grind these again.

In this whole process heat should be medium low. Take a non-stick pan and heat it up.

Add sugar and water to make a single string sugar syrup.

When all the sugar is dissolved in water, add 2 tbsp of milk in the syrup to remove all the gunk from the syrup. The milk will form the scum on top of the syrup, that you could remove with help of a small strainer.

To check if the sugar syrup is ready put a small drop on your four finger and thumb and pull the finger apart to check if the string forms between your fingers.

Don’t burn yourself as syrup will be hot. You need to act fast because the consistency of syrup changes really quickly. If the sugar consistency changes to more thicker then your barfi will be really chewy.

When the syrup is ready, first add cardamom powder and then pistachio powder in it. Quickly mix together in the syrup. If the whole thing is not coming together, you might need to add a little bit of milk to help in getting everything together.

Keep stirring. As the mixture starts leaving the pan add 1 tsp of ghee and mix to glaze the mixture.

Remove the mixture from the pan and put it on the parchment sheet.

Keep kneading the dough with spatula to bring in together as a dough.

Next step is to make a flatten it out, which can be done in two ways. You can simply use the spatula to flatten it or you can either roll it with a rolling pin. If you decide to use the rolling pin, first put the parchment paper on the top to make sure that mixture does no stick to the rolling pin.

You will need two flat spreads to make a sandwich with gulkand in between them. So you can either make two flats or divide a single flat in two parts.

Spread the gulkand over one of the flattened barfi dough and the put the other flattened barfi layer on the top to make a sandwich. Use the parchment paper to help you lift the other layer and flip it over the spread.

Put another parchment sheet on the top and roll it with a rolling pin lightly to bond the three layers together.

Now, remove the parchment sheet and cut it into your desired shape. Note, before making a final cut, make some guiding grid, to make sure all your pieces look similar in size and shape.

For Decoration:

For decoration, you can either put silver foil on the top to bring out the rich look of the barfi, spread some dry pistachios on the top, use dry rose petals or do combination of any of them. Since the festive season is going on, I used silver foils.